Court dismisses petition against Robert Vadra

Lucknow, March 7: In a respite for Robert Vadra, businessman and son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the Allahabad High Court Thursday rejected a plea seeking a probe against him following news reports alleging wrongdoings in land deals.

The petition filed by activist Nutan Thakur sought action against Vadra on the basis of news reports on allegations levelled against the businessman by politician Arvind Kejriwal.

In her petition filed Oct 9 last year, Thakur contended that the prime minister’s office should conduct a probe into the allegations against Vadra.

The central government, in the last hearing, told the court that the petition was untenable as it was based on news reports.

A division bench of Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Virendra Kumar Dixit said the petitioner “utterly failed to make out a case….”

“There is no proper affirmation and verification of her affidavit filed in support of the writ petition,” the court said.

Activists who were said to have released the news items had not come forward to file their affidavits to prove the authenticity of the documents sought to be relied upon by the petitioner, the court said.

There was also no legal obligation upon the respondent (government) … to hold inquiry of any kind into the transactions said to have been entered between two private entities, court said.

The court said there was absolutely no merit and it deserved to be dismissed while recording a note of caution against filing of such petitions.